In 1998, Greg zig-zagged 130,000 miles across the USA, while trying to hold down a full-time job, aspiring to reach at least 700 species of birds in one calendar year. "The Big Year," a novel by Mark Obmascik detailed his travails alongside two competitors. The book was later turned into a movie of the same title that starred Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson!

DIY Big Year: 4 Weeks 400 Species Master List (with Alaska & Hawaii)

Here is a big list of all 443 “possible” species listed in eBird format. By possible I mean any species that has been submitted to eBird, an online database of checklists, between 2006 and 2016 as of mid September 2016. I have further filtered the data so that what is listed are all at least moderately possible. But not all species are likely. Some are far less common than others. All target species have an eBird Frequency of Checklists that is greater than or equal to 3% on at least one of the trips. For all of these lists, eBird taxonomy has been used. Note that there may be a number of species that are listed here from eBird but are not ABA-countable (American Birding Association). Here is list of priorities I am going to use for the master list:

1 – Species is a year target. This is not only the best location to find this species. It is the only location where one can expect to see this bird on this tour schedule.

2 – Species is a year target. This is the best location to find this species. But it can also be found on other trips.

3 – Species is a year target. But some other location has a better probability of adding this bird to your year list.

4 – Bonus birds. This uncommon species is not a year target. It has an eBird Frequency of Checklists greater than or equal to 2% but is less than the 3% target threshold. This is the best location on this year’s trip schedule to see this species.